I first saw him fifteenish years ago. Just Billy Higgins and him in a tiny back office of a shopping mall in Baldwin Hills. One of the most breathtaking music experiences of my life. Back then, sat in a folding chair inches from Higgins's feet. This time, sat in a folding chair about 100 feet away with a shit sight line. Still sounds dope as all hell.
It takes an egoless man to roll up with a band of smoking players and allow them the soloing spotlights. Cymbalom player Miklós Lukács absolutely Crushed it. Jason Moran had a number of funky and stellar moments. Sokratis Sinopoulos channeled Lloyd's ethereal sensibilities perfectly. And Eric Harland is a beast of an accompanist.
The band consists of Lloyd 'vets,' but its performance felt like a series of floating spotlights. The first half of the night's material had a cohesive texture with no one personality really dominating; the performance felt in service of the songwriting. The back half switched to more conventional rhythms and modes, which offered space for individual players to leap to life. The night felt like an old school music revue with the material serving as a foundation for individuals to show and prove.
New York crowds continue to un-impress. At least a third of the crowd gave a polite O at the end of the main course, then promptly bounced. Wasn't even five minutes before the group sat back down to play an encore, yet folks were still walking out.
And, yes, he closed with "Sombrero Sam." Aren't you tired of that joint, Chuck? Thank goodness he continues to abstract it further and further. It's such an oddly, funky mutant now.
School's done, I can read again Tim O’Brien The Things They Carried “I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening truth.” (179) Alice Munro Lives of Girls and Women Ok, I'm starting to get those jokes now. Ta-Nehisi Coates “The Case for Reparations,” Atlantic Monthly Essential.
Michelle Alexander The New Jim Crow
Also essential, particularly in light of 2014. Understanding how the judicial, law enforcement and prison system all work together is necessary to begin having an intelligent conversation about our current state of affairs.
Octavia Butler Kindred I'm on board to read more Butler. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Half of a Yellow Sun I went on an Adichie stretch to get caught up. Half was my favorite, mostly for its attempt to capture a pretty under-reported (in the West) historic event. The bibliography is probably more important than the book, though. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Americanah “In America, tribalism is alive and well. There are four kinds--class, ideology, region, and race...Second, ideology. Liberals and conservatives. They don’t merely disagree on political issues, each side believes the other is evil. Intermarriage is discouraged and on the rare occasion that it happens, is considered remarkable…” (227-8) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Purple Hibiscus Stanley “Tookie” Williams Blue Rage, Black Redemption Williams is filled with contradictions. Survival is a vested interest, yet his resolve is self-destructive. There is an explicit understanding of the circumstances that allows him to stay in the cycle of violence, in spite of the extraordinary opportunities he is offered. Preston Lauterbach The Chitlin’ Circuit and the Road to Rock ‘n’ Roll A bit too casual for my tastes, but essential subject matter. Glenn Greenwald No Place to Hide The director’s commentary to the NSA leaks. X-Men: Volume 6, Days of Future Past, Phoenix Rising, Dark Phoenix Saga Forgot I never sat and read all these books at once because I could never afford to as a kid. X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills Why wasn't this made into a movie? X-Men: Fall of the Mutants, vol. 1 & 2 We don’t need to talk about the main X- titles -- we need to talk about New Mutants. What was the thinking behind this title? I take that back. The branding is very clear. It’s just a poor and bizarre choice. If the known demographic of the X- titles is pre-teen and capable of grappling with weighty, angsty issues, why would a teen-directed title like New Mutants deal with fluff like clothes and dating… through the voice of a middle-aged writer? What a bizarre title. Now I can see clearly what I disliked about this title as a kid. X-Men: Mutant Massacre This one was simply about nostalgia. Longshot Totally didn’t live up to my expectation. I loved the character. And I long admired Arthur Adams. There are a lot of interesting, weird turns in his back story (and I definitely want to dig into Ann Nocenti’s other work), but I’m kinda glad I never had the dough to get this mini-series. It’s a bit disorganized and light. I suppose that’s the character’s MO? The Avengers Epic Collection, Volume 9, 1976-1977, The Final Threat Whoa, pretty glad I was into the X- titles. Kinda lame in comparison. The Walking Dead: Compendium 2 Reinforces my feeling that I'm glad the show and books are diverging, even if only slightly. The different storylines and pacing are form appropriate. Bob Newhart I Shouldn’t Even Be Doing This!
Birdman 8½ and Stardust Memories were favorites when I was in high school, so I haven’t paid meta commentaries too much mind of late. And a meta commentary from the actor’s -- pardon me, celebrity’s -- perspective? This film should have been one big red flag, but turned out to be the one film in recent memory that I have watched repeatedly and gotten more from with each viewing. Smart acting and filmmaking, great style and structure and an entertaining story. And there’s still a Hollywood ending! What’s not to like? Selma I appreciate the more focused approach to biopics than the reductive, comprehensive approach. Selma wasn’t as essential as I thought it would be, but provides a fairly helpful greatest hits overview of a seminal moment in the Civil Rights Movement and American history. There are more accurate media depictions of these events, namely PBS’s essential Eyes on the Prize, but trawling through YouTube for past PBS content is not everyone’s MO, so little hands for Selma’s efforts in reinforcing the importance of protest, strategic activism, political legislation, legal legwork, and media spectacle. My quibbles are more stylistic. Mainly that a film that purports to uphold the importance of the people and mass movements, it relies heavily on Hollywood conventions like the close-up and history through the actions of specific individuals. Also, considering the importance of public media in this event, it was unfortunate that actual footage was scarcely incorporated (the spattering of footage at the close of the film only highlighted the fact that this was Hollywood dressing the part of the Civil Rights Movement). For example, the reenactment of the first attempt to cross the Pettus Bridge was heart-wrenching, but would have been devastating if paired or substituted completely with the actual footage. Frankly, slow-mo and dramatic framing has nothing on raw, actual footage. Yes, these are pretty petty comments, but also are the sorts of details that separate a good film from an essential one.
Under the Skin
I am not a Scarlett Johansson fan, but g-d if she hasn’t had a solid run of recent films/roles. Her voice and presence was suitably all-encompassing in Her. Her Black Widow in Winter Soldier finally came into her own. Her character in Lucy was entertaining. And her portrayal of the main character in Under the Skin was a genuine delight. On the surface, the film is like good Species. In truth, it’s a fascinating portrayal of learning and our insecurities and fears. And Mica Levi’s soundtrack is The Shining level good.
Silicon Valley Office Space jokes needed an update. Thank goodness for the scrum cracks.
Broad City
“King of the world” remains hilarious. Nathan For You Has any show both externally refracted and interally pushed media culture in such a literal way? Maybe Nathan Fielder should have taken over the Colbert Report? Review
Andy Daly’s got range, spanning from the cheerful cuckold Terrence Cutler to the dozen or so psychotic characters he brings to life on the Comedy Bang! Bang! podcast. Perhaps the throughline between all his characters is a put-upon/on-the-edge quality that is both empathetically familiar and grotesquely abhorrent. The skit-like structure of Review plays to the strengths of his scattershot imagination as he gets to push his character in new ways through different challenges/tasks/reviews. However, each review subtly builds on the prior, so the progression from pancakes to space makes complete sense. Never has watching a man methodically dismantle his life in the name of sharing an opinion been more delightful.
Top Five’s jail scene
The filmis a bit scattershot, but Rock lands a handful of solid shots. The centerpiece of the trailer is hardly the centerpiece of the film. The bachelor party scene easily trumps that scene, mostly because of Rock’s clear comfort with his actual homies (though Goldberg’s presence was a bit surprising, considering she’s from another comic generation). The Uprize scenes are a welcome reminder of The Chris Rock Show’s finer moments. But the real centerpiece is a near throwaway line for the true hip-hop head slash historic comic cinemaphile (and, in case there is any doubt, yes, X deserves a place in Top Five conversations).
Film/TV I caught up on or revisited. And liked (again). Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore Ellen Burstyn in A Woman Under the Influence. Except those two films came out the same year. Word…? Scanners Can’t go wrong with Cronenberg. Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench Whiplash is getting a lot of press, but I’m into Chazelle’s precocious debut. Almost makes me want to be twentysomething again. Almost. Stations of the Elevated Along with Black Power Mixtape, I suppose Euro takes on Black America could occupy their own sub-genre of filmmaking. Nevertheless, this film focuses more on the aesthetics of graffiti. The results are priceless. A necessary time capsule. Pacific Rim Fun rock-em-sock-em. Anarkali Jesus, what an extravagant budget. Crimson Kimono Along with The Exiles, this Fuller gem contains a necessary look at mid-century Los Angeles. Cross-cultural conflicts in an under-appreciated architectural wonder (Downtown). Locke Worth watching for Tom Hardy’s acting. Really. Like, watching emotions shift like shadows being cast across a face and all that type of shit. Neighbors Not the one with the put-upon, chubby guy dealing with his out-of-control neighbors, but the other one with the put-upon, chubby guy dealing with his out-of-control neighbors. I can see why this film did not make the pantheon Blues Brothers-Animal House pantheon, but it’s arguably more fascinating to watch than either. Diary of a Chambermaid I thought I had seen the original before. Kinda worth it for Meredith Burgess, but I’ll stick with Jeanne Moreau. Hunger Damn, Fassbender goes all in. Afro-Punk “There was no question whether I was a part of the black community… I got pulled over by cops when I was walking… All black people are part of the black community. You don’t have to do anything -- you’re black. So. That was comforting (laughs).” ~ Santi “Steve” Holley, Ann Arbor, MI Films I saw that are a reminder I need to stop watching shit for conversation's sake The Wolf of Wall Street Not as bad as thought it would be, but just plain, fucking boring. And unnecessary. And a solid reminder that I don’t need to watch Scorcese films anymore. Magic Mike Also boring. And unnecessary. Lone Survivor, End of Watch, etc. The hyperfocus on realism through style does a disturbing job of obscuring narrative leaps and poor ethics. The narrative changes to Luttrell’s account were unnecessary and ridiculous. And End of Watch really has nothing to say besides that cops can be bros. What a disservice. Captain Phillips Embarrassing. Wreck-it Ralph For billing itself as a video game nostalgia flick, it spends a lot of time dwelling on candy nostalgia. Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer I’ll take the knock on this one because its shittiness was hardly a surprise. A case where curiosity shouldn’t be indulged. Rubber Not as weird as I thought it would be. The Counselor Oh yeah, I also don’t need to watch Ridley Scott films anymore. Transformers & The Hobbit series Not even worth it for conversation’s sake. Because there’s no conversation to be had. Argo Really, go fuck yourself. Films I’ll have to catch up onBoyhood Goodbye to Language The Babadook Kindergarten Teacher Concerning Violence
I’ve been on a steady march towards becoming the next Editor-in-Chief of Dad, so we can drop any pretense of these lists being models of cool journalistic research. They’re simply things the few things I glommed on to over the course of the year. Catchy tunes from this year
2008 greatness (Zaytoven) + 2013 greatness (Metro Boomin) = 2014 greatness. Lil Durk “Party” (Feat. Young Thug)
Ladies and gentlemen, here’s your 2014 wedding anthem. Shy Glizzy “Awwsome”
Captures the last couple years pretty well. Future “Benz Friend” (Feat. Andre 3000)
“Move That Dope” and “My Momma” should be on this list, if it weren’t for those fucking horrible guestlist. I’m still lukewarm on “Benz Friend” as a whole, but still hard for Stacks’ verse. And over Organized Noize? Can’t front. Michael Jackson “Love Never Felt So Good”
Remember this record? Sure, Paul Anka is on it. And it doesn’t break any new ground. But it sure beats Akon and Kanye West “duets” or any of that garbage. DJ Quik “Trapped on the Tracks”
Killer Mike’s juiced-up opening (“I’m going to bang this bitch the fuck out!”) is my favorite part. I’m not as excited about this LP as most -- doesn’t cover different sonic ground the first LP didn’t already cover, and, welp, didn’t need El-P to convince me of Killa’s talent -- but I appreciate any song that gives Mike Bigga nearly 2 minutes to just go off. De La Soul “Goes With The Word”
Not even my favorite song off the Smell the D.A.I.S.Y. torrent LP, but probably best current example of why Dave and Pos remain in my Top 5. Very few MCs dance around the beat with such command. Sure, there’s little sonic novelty to their laid-back approach, but it’s like listening to an old hand blow something wonderful while leaning back at the end of a cutting session. Future Islands “Seasons (Waiting On You)”
Eh, it’s the current generation’s New Order. And it’s catchy even without the GIFs. especia “くるかな”
See, Ariana Grande isn’t the only one who has handlers with a firm grasp on that nostalgia aesthetic. Solid albums from this year you'll see on other lists Theo Parrish American Intelligence I’m getting older, Theo’s getting older. Hence, there’re joints for the club, as well as the headphones. D’Angelo And The Vanguard Black Messiah Plays real well alongside Voodoo. Lots of lovely harmonic ideas and effects. Mostly a wonder for simply existing. We wanted it for so long, it actually exists, and it’s damn fonky. Azealia Banks Broke With Expensive Taste As much as that Hot 97 interview brought back a necessary conversation that we never seem to complete, the ridiculous fallout is a distraction. Broke is a beast of a record. Best Beastie-esque mixtape record in a minute. Flying Lotus You’re Dead! Not a big departure from Until the Quiet Comes. Actually, not a big departure from Thundercat’s Apocalypse. Can’t front b/c I’m more into the proggy shit than the light-show shit he has to do in concert these days. Perfect for keeping kids off my lawn. St. Vincent St. Vincent Been a while since I’ve encountered an artists where I like each new album more than the last. Constantly challenging herself to balance pushing boundaries and fitting within popular norms. And one of the best live acts out now. Annie, Prince is still alive, please stop gunning for his seat. Angel Olsen Burn Your Fire For No Witness I'm a sucker for dirty guitars playing along with little else. Todd Barry The Crowd Work Tour Aziz’s crowd work in the lead up to his most recent tour was a great reminder of the wealth of material that can be dug up from an audience. However, Aziz sells humor constantly with his delivery. Barry is a master to watch as he patiently and confidently allows broken psyches to gradually unfold. My Brightest Diamond This Is My Hand Any working parent should aspire to this level of quality productivity. Solid albums from this year you may not see on other lists Hari Kondabolu Waiting for 2042 All killer, no filler. Altered Tapes reworks Ok, they're not an album. But, I’m that age. Old tunes I bumped Underdog Edits Box Set Jesus, Trident, I’m still going through all these. May we open up our own Paradise Garage Redux? Cool Breeze “Watch for the Hook” Couldn’t stop listening to this after hearing about the OutKast reunion show in Atlanta. A boy can wish, right? Eightball and MJG “Listen to the Lyrics” I was really determined to include them in my Duos setlist. Wrong crowd. Mantronix and Just-Ice Drum machines and lyric lickin’. Malcolm’s 1963 Debate With James Baldwin They weren’t that far from each other, in the end. Spice 1 AmeriKKKa's Nightmare Forgot about the ragga influence. Public Enemy b-sides, c. It Takes a Nation… and Fear of Black Planet Yes, I’m happy about the reissues. Low Profile We’re In This Together Brutal cuts. And WC sounds nice. Tuff Crew Phanjam After spending time in Philly, had to dust this off. Perfume ⊿ Daft Punk will never make pop as cool as Yasutaka Nakata. Tony! Toni! Toné! House of Music My grown and sexy shit. Bumpy Knuckles “Part of My Life” My college radio shit. Arrested Development soundtrack Shit for my kid and me. A Janet Jackson compilation Solid bangers. Reminder to play her out more often. Tracy + The Plastics It’s been 10 years?? Faye Wong’s “Random Thoughts” and “Know Oneself and Each Other” The influence of the Cocteau Twins is all over her Random Thoughts album, but the covers are really something else. Tim Hecker Ravedeath, 1972 I think I wrote a capsule review of this, but I came back around to his shit when he did that Red Bull thing. The Apples in Stereo - first three albums Prepping for a wedding reminded to dig into this band. What a wonder. Though I think I’m on team Hilarie.
CCR “Suzie Q” Those drums kick so lovely... Anita O’Day At Mister Kelly’s One wedding kicked up a lot of memories. I saw O’Day at the Derby shortly before she passed with this same friend. Late career O’Day obviously had a very different voice and range, but her charm and command was intact. I still swoon thinking about that night. Rick Springfield’s “Comic Book Heroes” Rivers Cuomo wishes he could write angsty nerd shit on this level. Cannonball Adderley Country Preacher Best rap album. Steve Reich “Six Marimbas” and Susumu Yokota’s Symbol Yet another instrument to learn. Anna Calvi One Breath I think Eno mentioned this in an interview, so I picked it up. Good, heavy rock. Aldo Ciccolini’s Erik Satie albums A classical gateway. The Krzysztof Penderecki pieces from The Shining soundtrack Pairs nicely with Mica Levi. Gary Numan I, Assassin While waiting for that new D’Angelo, I got down with some vintage Pino. Montana Orchestra “It Looks Like Love (Feat. Goody Goody) (Club 89 Remix)” I used to play out the original Goody Goody version a lot, so I had forgotten how much I loved this joint. I still prefer the original, but this was a novel way to revisit it. The unreleased shit on Eddie Murphy’s 1997 Greatest Comedy Hits Not great or essential, but this is a sign how much I’m fiending for new Eddie Murphy stand-up. The bit about being buried in platforms is pretty great visually. Andre Nickatina Conversation With A Devil - CR 3 (Cocaine Raps 3) Solid slangin’ shit. Henry Threadgill Very Very Circus Carry The Day My NPR shit.
Jimmy Giuffre The Jimmy Giuffre 3 Thanks, Pops.
Most tolerable wedding songs Pharrell “Happy (Cousin Cole Reggae Version)” 2NE1 “Happy” Mark Ronson “Uptown Funk" Best Digs Saafir’s The Hit List (and two armfulls of hip-hop) for 50 cents
Because CDs are the new tapes. But better. Claudine Longet’s Claudine
Not a great record, but priceless for a cover that quickly became the kid’s first crush.
Chet Baker/Gerry Mulligan’s The Complete Pacific Jazz and Capitol Recordings Copped this set at a steal. And in perfect condition, too. Gotta thank Pops for turning me on to this, because this level of chill is not my norm. I’ll always have a soft spot for Gerry, though; he was my first professional concert introduction to jazz.
A random browse through NYPL’s catalogs turned up this seminal Carnatic recording. What takes this over-the-top is that my buddy’s pops, Jon “Higgins Bhagavatar” Higgins, wrote the liners. Not even a couple weeks later, I found the original LP, along with another Krishnan joint (also with liners from Higgins).
I have this record, but due in part to a high school memory of not being able to afford this album, in addition to a vague feeling that it would be nice to have the instrumentals on CD, I picked this up. I know. The Kid’s Top SpinsCat Stevens Harold and Maude Soundtrack Bob Dylan “Little Sadie” Crayon Pop “빠빠빠 2.0 (Bar Bar Bar 2.0)” Ocean 11 “Housewive’s Choice” Keith Hudson Lee Perry Redbone “Come and Get Your Love” Arrested Development soundtrack Fantastic Mr. Fox soundtrack Kate Bush Hounds of Love Dusty Springfield Shows that I went to Cibo Matto @ Brooklyn Bowl (March 8)
Strangely not as nostalgic as I thought it would be. They played a fair amount of new material. And the old stuff sounded tweaked with the current line-up and gear. Almost forgot: Buffalo Daughter opened! And they burned! Chappelle @ Radio City Music Hall (June 22)
Pretty different than seeing him at the Punchline or those small spots in Oakland in the ‘90s, but what a well-deserved house for DC. Caught him on a night with Charlie Murphy and Donnell Rawlings. I could have done without them. Slight preference for one of the music nights, but got tickets before those shows were announced. And the focus was tightly on Chappelle. Really beautiful, gifted comedian. OOIOO @ Rough Trade (July 18)
Best show. Also, the most music-packed concert I’d been to in quite a while. As soon as Doe Paoro finished her opening set, Batala NYC took the floor for about 45 minutes of rump shakin’ and drum routines. The drum corp also helped Shara & co. kick off the MBD portion of the evening by providing the percussive meat behind This Is My Hand lead single, “Pressure.” What’s more impressive is that Worden kept up the energy and momentum. Shows that should be on the above list, but I either got sick or fell asleep and missed Bill Callahan @ some Bowery Presents venue Totally forgot I had these tickets. Paradise Garage block party Ditto. Mahmoud Ahmed in Red Hook Kid got me sick, dog ate my homework… Angel Olsen @ Roulette I tried calling and couldn’t get through. Visited Roulette, only to find out the tickets were being handled through Bowery Presents. Promptly forgot to follow-up and shit sold out.
I'm out of school for the summer, so I've had a chance to do some leisure reading. I'm currently re-reading Nelson George's The Death of Rhythm & Blues mostly because I hadn't read it in about 15 years and it was in my line-of-sight when I scanned the bookshelf. As such, I don't remember much, so it's been a pleasure revisiting the book. It's an obvious read for the historic observations, but a better source for observations on the changes in the music industry, particularly radio, that phased out rhythm & blues and introduced rock & roll. Like a lot of George's writing, it's heavy on opinion, but there are some great insights. The part about the decline of the Negro Baseball League and the tradeoff of black business sovereignty potential in the face of Jackie Robinson and integration in the Major Leagues is pretty great.
Unexpectedly, Death has been a great resource in thinking about EDM and the new Daft Punk album.
First, a point about EDM and DP.
Part of the chatter leading up to Daft Punk's 'return' (from where exactly?) has been to historicize the group's relevance. Take for example The Guardian's framing of the Random Access Memories release announcement as a grand affirmation of the group's status as "EDM Godfathers." This pat narrative suggests on Day One ('96's Homework? '01's Discovery?), there was Daft Punk and sometime later in the week/decade, Skrillex, wackawackwackwacka, dubstep, EDM, The End. Of course, this is ridiculous, but this is the land of marketing language, not journalism or history writing.
Oddly enough Daft Punk weathered a similar conversation around the time of its first album when the chatter-of-the-day was about "electronica," the catch-all-term for The Chemical Brothers, Underworld, Orbital, and anything that came out of a club/open field. Little surprise that Guy-Man would respond to a question about EDM artists Skrillex & Deadmau5 with this gem: "At first I thought it was all just one guy, some DJ called EDM." Marketing and cultural terms like EDM and electronica are rarely of significant use for an artist, but the conversation about where the group fits into the EDM, electronica or whatever narrative is interesting, because they provide cues about where the market would like to place the group.
Electronica's distinction was its broad market push. In Los Angeles, it (both the term and its artists) was pushed on diverse outlets ranging from KCRW (the grown & nebbish) to KROQ (the young & horny; remember Jason Bentley's one-hour slot on the station?). The term failed to stick, perhaps the messaging got muddled, i.e. the music couldn't reconcile being both young and old. On one hand, these artists had roots in the clubs and rave scenes. However, the effect of William Orbit producing Madonna's Ray of Light was not so much a reinvention of the artist, so much as an aging of the relatively young club art.
Which may explain EDM's tighter focus and appeal as a youth form. Although the stupidly generic term "electronic dance music" does a better semantic job of capturing the myriad types of club/rave/dance music (as opposed to sounding like the Esperanto-ish "electronica"), EDM is not meant to speak to the past club-goers and older heads who can talk about Paradise Garage, the Loft, or any person, song or place mentioned in Michaelangelo Matos's great piece on NYC house. It is meant to alienate my middle-aged mother friends who ask, "Who is Molly?" It is meant to alienate me, simply because I was never within spitting range of EDM's target demographic.
Which brings us back to Daft Punk and why it is a) ridiculous to even place the group within the canon of EDM, simply because they've been around too long; and b) though the group plays coy with their cute "Who is Mr. EDM?" comments, Random Access Memories is turning out to be a great inversion of what electronic dance music can encapsulate.
Let's pivot quickly and bring in Mr. George. Early on in Death, George makes a point about the contrasting appeal and 'soul' of rhythm & blues versus rock & roll (emphasis added):
The generational schism and teen-eye view that has always been the crux of the rock & roll ethos was mostly foreign to black consumers, young as well as old. That is not to say that all blacks rejected rock & roll, both as a business term or social attitude, but R&B made a connection to black listeners that was both musical and extramusical. Music made by the white bands was inevitably (and often deliberately) adolescent, addressed to adolescent ears about adolescent fears. Black teens might listen, but their heads were in different places, and R&B articulated that difference not just in vocal or aural effect but in attitude. Rock & roll was young music; R&B managed to be young and old, filled both with references to the past and with fresh interpretations, all at the same time (68-69).
Surely, there's room for argument here, but George makes an interesting point about how rhythm & blues had been pushed to all ages, whereas rock & roll was strictly for the young, dumb and blue-balled. George points to the rise of black radio and its open branding of stations as gateways to black communities—not communities of teens versus adults, but whole, black communities. WXLW proudly proclaimed it was "serving and selling 328,000 Negroes in the St Louis area since 1947." Jackson, Mississippi's WOKJ called itself "the ONLY way to the 107,000 Negroes" of that community. The name "rock & roll" alone makes clear the contrast, as it is code for fuckin'—rockin' and rollin' all night long... More telling are the specific examples. George quotes Robert Palmer's point about the shift in Leiber and Stoller's songwriting, "There is a definite progression in the Coasters records, from an in-group (black) humor o a more universal and teen-oriented sense of fun" (66). In sum, "if rhythm & blues was the discovery of the black market, rock & roll was the exploitation of white teens..." (George, 67)
What irks me about the supposed conventional wisdom of electronica and EDM is the familiar notion that music must be either this or that, simply because to suggest otherwise wouldn't make for a neat narrative. And, because we're all marketing geniuses courtesy of Don Draper's folk wisdom, we should all wonder, "Why does everybody need to talk about everything?" Because we need to sell these nylons, dammit.
The brilliance then of Daft Punk's Random Access Memories is its throwback not just to different artists (Giorgio Moroder, Paul Williams, Nile Rodgers) or recording styles (live instrumentation), but the idea of music for multiple generations. Certainly, this is not a dance record in the popular, contemporary sense. In all of the chatter leading up to the album's release, the pair made it clear their direction was both backward and forward, not now. Which, like all things different, is difficult to reconcile at first. Diplo, another major face in the EDM world, posted reactions to the album on Twitter, which were characterized as "trashing." Sure, suggesting Julian Casablancas should be replaced by Eddie Adams is hardly a complement. But looking at the Twitter posts in chronological order, you can see a progression in conflicted feelings, ranging from a familiar nostalgic twinge ("Reminds me of when I was 19 really high and listened to kid a over and over again but I don't know if yung kids will get It") to confusion ("These guys are way smarter then me.I'm definitely missing something.") to dismissive/makesmybrainhurt ("This album makes me not like LA now I jus wanna hang out with mexican kids and tag ur car"). Given that Diplo has built a career on nowness, yet is also old and knowledgeable enough to understand a good chunk of Daft Punk's reference points, his range of reactions should hardly be surprising. It is not au courant to be a little of this and that. Random Access Memories certainly hits notes on a number of scales.
Sidenote: Diplo's subsequent non-apology is yet another nod to the current trend of non-apologies.
I'll close by noting I'm still, like you, listening to a shitty, low-bit version of the album, so it's hardly fair to give a full assessment. I also don't have much else to add to the chorus of accolades for the songs themselves. That said, here are some Twitter-sized random thoughts:
The Paul Williams joint "Touch" is pretty Muppets-y, which I dig.
I didn't get the album until "Fragments of Time." Todd Edwards channeling his inner #yachtrock. YES.
Daft Punk doesn't make music for fucking. It's cool. It's very listenable. But in spite of the hard guitar work on "Lose Yourself to Dance," Daft Punk generally doesn't inspire fucking.
On a related note, this Triple J Radio interview began circulating in mid-May. Thomas's response to the DJ's suggestion that Pharrell doesn't need to stay up late "getting lucky" (@1:33) sounds amusingly naive and cute. He side-steps the idea of sexual innuendo and instead talks about "the collective we," "timeless bubbles," and "celebratory and optimistic lyrics." That said, his response sounds completely not ironic, which is incredibly refreshing. And confirms my feeling that "One More Time" intentionally sits in the same tonal lane as Cher's "Believe," given the blinding enthusiasm of both tracks.
Saw FlyLo on Sunday night. Here are some thoughts:
Lo~tta white folks.
I love dude, but it's telling when the highlights are when he dropped other people's records: TNGHT, Clams Casino/Lil B's "I'm God," and some song that uses the same progression as Inner City's "Good Life."
Low point was the Transylvanian Skrillex synths; too many people use that shit, brah.
I'm on the fence about whether I'd like to hear a FlyLo after hours house set.
Lo~tta white folks love Capt. Murphy. I'll stick to rappers to do my rappity raps.
If we're gonna talk about ratchet, please tweak Problem's "Twerk" or mess w/ DJ Mustard.
Re: the openers, Thundercat is great to hear, though I'd love to hear him with a Elvin Jones style power drummer, not a Keith Moon/Animal type.
Finally, I'm getting older, but not quite old. Why? I had a good time. But I'd also be happy seeing dude recreate his Wildcat soundtrack at a 'proper' seated venue like Yoshi's.
Also back to work with Dirtystylus on setting up sintalentos dot com, so look for that in a minute.
Per the recent tweet, I'll post a couple freestyle blends I did for Guro's niece's sweet 16. Also am almost finished with the follow-up to the summer and winter blends.
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